After almost nine months of inquiry and investigation, the Modesto Irrigation District (MID) is still unable (or unwilling) to determine whether or not MID Director Larry Byrd used MID surface water on out-of-district trees on the AB LaGrange Ranch, where he is a partner with his brother Tim Byrd and Tyler “Ty” Angle.
The out-of-district trees are in two separate almond orchards near the town of LaGrange in southeastern Stanislaus County. One, on a property also known as the “Rodoni” ranch, consists of just under 340 acres of in-district property. Another 96.7 acres are out-of-district. A second orchard, known locally as the “Rairden” property, features thirty acres in-district and 42 acres outside district boundaries.
Last July 8, former Oakdale Irrigation District Board Member Linda Santos suggested during a public meeting that Director Byrd was watering out-of-district trees with MID surface water, a clear violation of district rules. Subsequently, Todd Sill, AB LaGrange ranch manager from 2016 until 2023, claimed Byrd “seldom” used groundwater on the out-of-district trees. Byrd himself claimed that he irrigated the out-of-district trees with groundwater he pumped “almost daily” during hot weather.
After months of discussion and debate, the MID Board of Directors approved an investigation into Byrd’s alleged misuse of MID water last October. After ten weeks of investigation, 4Creeks Design and Construction firm determined Byrd could not have used groundwater on the out-of-district trees. Despite this conclusion, 4Creeks investigators said they could not determine whether Byrd used MID surface to irrigate the out-of-district trees. There were no other water sources available.
Local farmers say almond trees need three to four feet of water per acre. The general rule-of-thumb is three and a half feet. Larry Byrd has a total of one-hundred thirty-eight acres of out-of-district almonds — ninety-six on the Rodoni and forty-two on the Rairden. At a highly conservative estimate of three acre-feet per year, one-hundred thirty-eight acres of almonds would require four-hundred and fourteen acre-feet of water per year.
The current price for MID out-of-district water is two-hundred dollars per acre-foot. Two-hundred dollars times four-hundred and fourteen comes to eighty-two thousand and eight-hundred dollars ($82,800). Over a five-year period, that’s four-hundred fourteen thousand dollars ($414,000). Remember, these dollar amounts are based on a water use estimate on the very low end — actual usage averages were likely much higher.
MID’s inability to account for that much of our most valuable public resource is inexcusable. Over the course of the Byrd controversy, Byrd and others have implied that other farmers have applied MID surface water on out-of-district property by suggesting continued investigations would “open a can of worms.” If other farmers are indeed irrigating out-of-district properties with MID surface water, the loss to MID ratepayers of the district’s most precious resource could amount to millions of dollars per year.
The Modesto Irrigation District is a public utility charged with governing the use of a public resource. The State of California is the ultimate authority for public utilities within state boundaries. The failure of MID management to account for water use within district boundaries is a failure to govern and amounts to a gross disservice to MID ratepayers. It’s time for the State to step in and assure MID ratepayers the district’s most valuable asset is properly policed and paid for.
MID ratepayers have the right to the truth about where their water goes.